And, well… I couldn’t bring myself to force him to wallow.We entered the Packhouse, and I had to suppress a gasp. Even though I had seen the damage before, it was still shocking. The once-beautiful wooden walls were now marred by patches of inky black fungus. In some places, the wood had crumbled e
ChrisThe helicopter ride felt longer than usual, my mind constantly drifting back to Moonstone and Ava. I hated that I was leaving during so much turmoil, hated to say goodbye to Ava, even if only for a few days; but I knew it was necessary.Still, by the time we landed in the city, I was already f
I took a deep breath. This wasn’t part of the plan, but I couldn’t read those notes. ‘Personal matters’ didn’t cut it. Honesty did. That was what we all needed, what we all deserved: the truth.“I’ll be blunt,” I said, pulling my shoulders back and ignoring the terrified looks from my assistants. “M
AvaUnbeknownst to Chris, I wasn’t asleep. In fact, I wasn’t even close.I stood in the doorway, my claws extended and fangs bared at Patrick. My heart was racing, adrenaline pumping through my veins. How did he get in here? What did he want?“Calm down, Ava,” Patrick said, his hands raised in a pla
I felt sick. We had imagined that it would come to this, but hearing it laid out in front of me, seeing the stony truth in Patrick’s face… It was all too much.Without thinking, I crossed over to the sofa and sat, the knife falling slack between my fingers.“What about the blight?” I whispered. “Doe
AvaOf course, I didn’t sleep a wink that night.Rather, I paced back and forth in my living room all night, my mind racing with the information Patrick had shared. The soft ticking of the clock on the wall seemed to mock me as the hours crawled by.Throughout the night, every creak in the house had
To my surprise, Leonard let out a bitter laugh.“Not anymore,” he said, pulling out his phone.My stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”Leonard pulled up a video and handed me his phone. “I’m assuming you missed Chris’s press conference last night, since you were… busy. Just watch.”I pressed play, m
ChrisI woke up early the next morning, the unfamiliar hotel room coming into focus as I blinked away the remnants of sleep. For a moment, I reached out, expecting to feel Ava’s familiar warmth beside me, craving the sensation of her skin beneath my fingertips.But the bed was empty, and reality cra